Long-time players of League of Legends will have appreciated The Black Cleaver since the days it was unfathomably broken and unrivalled. You bought it, you rofl stomped, and then you walked away with freelo (free ELO for the uninitiated – an outdated term given Ranked works off MMR now, but I digress).

Since this point in time, Riot tweaked and fiddled and made Black Cleaver into a niche item that was a luxury pick up to really beat up tanks should you be in a good position to afford it and not get punished for picking it over another tanky item. This was useful when snowballing a lead but not very popular so Black Cleaver fell out to the fringes of builds.

Cue the new Riot Games, full of money from the ever growing fan base and subsequently productivity, bringing back some overdue glory for the axe. Brace yourselves then for a whole raft of new incentives for including Black Cleaver in your build!

I'm no expert but judging by streams this morning, Black Cleaver seems really, really good.

— Tom Searfoss (@OptimusTom) April 29, 2015

The Item – what changed?

Black Cleaver might seem wholly different, but it’s not. The main change is the recipe, which has swapped from Brutaliser and a Ruby Crystal plus additional gold to Phage, Kindlegem, and 825 gold. This keeps the total cost at a fairly hefty 3000 but it’s worth the investment.

The change in removing Brutaliser removes the flat 10 armour penetration, instead replacing it with stacking armour shred. This might seem like a nerf but the item is meant to be a tank buster and, in a tank meta, it’s more than appropriate that Riot gave us a weapon to combat these tanks for bruisers by sacrificing ineffective initial damage for a more beneficial damage over the course of a significant battle.

Attack damage on Black Cleaver is down 10 compared to previously, HP is up 200, cooldown reduction is up 10%, the armour shred lasts for 6 seconds rather than 4, and the maximum stacks is 6.

Why is Black Cleaver so good?

Did you not just read that paragraph above?

The new Black Cleaver is designed for this new League of Legends meta; the ‘World of Tanks’ as it has been dubbed. It speeds you up just by dealing physical damage, and boosts your movement should you kill ANY unit or land an assist on a champion. This is great for a ‘hit and run’ play style and really beneficial in chasing down retreating opponents, especially when you’re being ganked for. Nothing is more irritating for a jungler than putting a lot of time and effort into sweeping wards and timing a gank just to see you tickle the enemy as they flee or whiff a skillshot to engage.

On top of this is the 20% cooldown. Not too many items have more than 10% now and that has been frustrating because only one person really needs to get Frozen Heart and quite often it’s the jungler due to their frontline nature. On top of this a lot of builds opt for Banshee’s Veil over Spirit Visage, so that’s more CDR missed out on in favour of survivability and pragmatism. Now the bruiser can join in the cooldown fun and be a little more cast-happy, though mana/energy costs are still your responsibility.

Cinderhulk’s HP increase works nicely with the Black Cleaver, giving you a little more value for money, and it suits a whole variety of champions; aggressors like Xin Zhao and Darius, obnoxious duellists like Garen and Trundle, or those who can peel like Rek’Sai and Wukong.

How do I use it? Where does it fit in to my build?

The purpose of Black Cleaver is to drop tanks. You want to combat their troubling levels of HP, HP regen, and armour. This isn’t too much of an issue early game so you want to be aiming for this around the 20-30 minute region as a mid-game item – unless you’re a rare case like Gnar into a tank early.

You want to be using the Cleaver to build up stacks. This does suit junglers but, unless you’re good on your feet, you won’t be stacking too well with little hits here and there. You want to be committing to a fight and whittling down the enemy armour and using the window to shred the exposed HP – again a reason to get it in the mid game.

In case you thought that you could go ranged to poke easier – the armour stacking is half as effective on ranged champions. Sorry!

In terms of build, you should still be looking at other items earlier on. Tiamat, Warden’s Mail, Bami’s Cinder, and even the Brutaliser are all good items depending on your opponent. You want two completed items plus boots ready for the Black Cleaver to be built on top of. With this foundation you should be capable of split push farming a lane or surviving in the thick of a fight. Plus, the build path of Black Cleaver is its one downfall, which makes it a weak option early game for most of those who would use it.

Which champions benefit?

Most bruiser type AD top laners benefit from the new Black Cleaver, so here’s a rundown of who does what and how viable they are.

Renekton: With the ‘Slice and Dice’ in Renekton’s kit, plus a cleave AND a stun, you can quite easily chain a combo together that builds all 6 stacks up on the item. I’d recommend perhaps saving the stun for the final stack so that you buy yourself maximum time to unload your damage while they’re exposed.

Wukong: The old Black Cleaver suited Wukong well because Brutaliser’s armour penetration, coupled with his Q – Crushing Blow, meant the Monkey God’s could really wallop. Now though the new Wukong is a tankier beast; less burst and more utility. The 20% cooldown grants him more uses of his ultimate to engage or even peel for the team, and applies the Black Cleaver stacks across the board with the AOE. The more frequent ultimate uses mean better initiation for the champion.

Jungle is the best advised pick for Wukong given his stealth engages via the dummy ability and his Stone Skin passive allowing him to be tankier so he can rush Cleaver as second item. Plus, with limited mana pool and several good counters like Vladimir at the moment, you can find yourself seriously bullied out in lane.

Pantheon: Pantheon was a top pick not too long ago and he isn’t a top pick again, but what the Black Cleaver does do for him is allow a greater use of his ultimate – Skyfall – to be more disruptive and dangerous as a global presence. It also takes a little off his cruel early game to make him more useful in the mid game. It might seem like a tiny change but it wouldn’t surprise me if we saw teams try running Pantheon/Twisted Fate combos again (perhaps even with Rek’Sai) to really dominate the early game, take a lead on dragons, and then just run with the snowball. It’s high risk but high reward.

Rek’Sai: The void lady is a disputed beneficiary of the new Black Cleaver, but I’m on the side that she’s great. She’s a disrupting bruiser with effective peel and engage potential, who can frontline comfortably and move around the map quickly. Previously people would use Trinity Force – like on Darius – for the Phage passive and some Sheen burst, but now in place of that burst Rek’Sai can stack armour shred with her Queen’s Wrath really quickly.

Riot’s own ‘Zirene’ commented on Twitter about his own success, saying:

Back to Diamond II. Cinderhulk/Black Cleaver Rek'Sai is the best she has ever felt late game. Loving the early gank play pattern into peel.

— Zirene (@LoLZirene) May 5, 2015

He’s not the only one talking about it though. Players like ex Gravity player ‘SaintVicious’ has commented on how she’s one of the few to truly benefit from the item, while former Team Coast jungler ‘Impaler’ argues that the 20% cooldown reduction on her is a waste.

Kha’Zix/Zed/Talon/Rengar: These are your assassin types. They’re aiming to single target destroy. The item is being picked up as both a bolster to your survivability on these guys but also to help shred the inevitable tankiness developed against you to prevent further kill picks.

With the Kha’Zix pick you’ll notice it stacks with his W – Void Spikes. Not only this, but Kha'Zix heals off W if in the detonation range of the spikes, so it’s a tidy combo.

Darius: Darius has always lacked mobility in his kit. With his ultimate receiving tweaks recently, it felt like he might make a comeback – albeit more out of optimism than pragmatism. Now he has an item that stacks up just like his bleeds do, so the synergy is there automatically.

The upgraded Phage passive on the Black Cleaver gives Darius a lot more chase potential should you engage and be retreated from. Bleeding targets give Darius movement speed (5% per opponent) on top of this, and the HP gains/cooldown reduction are just really handy for being ham aggressive.

Gnar: Trinity Force sucks on Gnar. He doesn’t need crit damage and doesn’t use mana so there’s waste instantly. Most Gnar players buy Brutaliser for early lane poke before tanking up, completing Black Cleaver, and then finishing a full build. Now the angry creature gets an improved Phage passive without waste, and this allows him to kite better and chase better.

The 20% cooldown reduction is another huge bonus, and the 400HP synergises well with Mega Gnar’s bonus stats.

New Black cleaver has turned gnar from a good pick into a disgusting champ

— Ram Djemal (@BrokenshardEUW) May 1, 2015

Xin Zhao: Often nicknamed ‘Win Now’, this warrior is famed for his strong all-in potential but being completely dopey when it comes to sticking to a target. Now you can prioritise the new Black Cleaver over Trinity Force and sacrifice that burst damage for cooldown reduction, movement passives to counter any kiting, and the HP allows better scaling because his ultimate provides resistances.

Oh boy I just tried the new Black Cleaver on Xin Zhao. Helps with his mobility problems so much

— Shakarez (@Shakarez) April 27, 2015

Simply put, you can use E – Audacious Charge a lot more to gap close, slow, and bully people. On top of this your ‘Challenge’ passive stacks, so coupled with the Black Cleaver you can actually get more armour penetration than a Last Whisper offers.

A word of warning though – be careful what you pick in to. It can be really hard to close in on carries and the back line if your opponents are running a hard c.c. team. The likes of Lissandra, Leona, and Amumu are all incredibly frustrating and expose the weakness that is Xin Zhao’s need to throw himself into fights; fights that can separate him from carries or make him useless on the back foot.

Olaf: The angry ginger giant enjoys health points and cooldown reduction. Black Cleaver offers both. Factor in the fact that Olaf gains movement speed from throwing his axes, and can throw more often with improved cooldowns… it can result in a fearsome beat down from the guy with an attack speed steroid in his kit.

Garen: Black Cleaver means Super Garen. The item fits in SO well with his kit. You basically become a Beyblade with the spin, which stacks the armour shred on as many people as get in your way. Couple that with the Phage passive giving you more movement speed, and big chunks of cooldown reduction and HP and you’re laughing.

Others

Jarvan IV has fallen from the top tier of junglers but he’s still strong. Black Cleaver works well in his kit, especially if you have the Warrior enchant on your jungle item, though this does sacrifice Cinderhulk.

Trundle doesn’t really gain or lose anything by having the new Black Cleaver. It’s a preference item. I personally find people are constantly trying to run away, and that I end up fighting tanks because only they are brave enough to duel, so a Black Cleaver is nice. It’s not a core item though and given you’re more likely to frontline than be allowed to split push… it’s a circumstantial pick-up.

Quite a few people have pointed to the AD Carry role for utilising Black Cleaver, given that Urgot can use the item quite well. In the words of Cloud9’s Sneaky though:

I think black cleaver is too weird to build on ADC's. The only one I've found that it's okay on so far is CDR Ashe lol

— Zach Scuderi (@C9Sneaky) May 1, 2015

Don’t lose faith though! Other unorthodox pick suggestions include Yorick, for ghouls stacking the armour pen, and Kayle building Runaan’s Hurricane, Black Cleaver, and Wit’s End for a purposeful team-shred usage, but a really exciting pick is Udyr – as pointed out below: